The Elders had given Dad a beautiful necktie, so everyone signed it in true missionary fashion.
Even Yergen signed the tie - he thought it was kinda weird to do that.
And the other photos from the 'airport event'
We had a transfer in Aktau which is the city by the Caspian Seas which we visited when Warren and Whitney (and Holland) were here. It is a little bitty airport out in the vast flat hot dry and brown steppe. However, we couldn't see anything because it was dark. On a good day, the layover in Aktau is five hours; we we were lucky and only had to wait six hours. It was so painful...waiting on metal seats .
Dad got two pops for us. Mine was a blue Fanta which was orange flavor,ed, and Dad's was a cucumber flavored Sprite which really wasn't too bad.
And with just a few minutes left before we needed to board the plane to Batumi, I took all the remaining tenge that we had and bought...
And on to Batumi - the front entrance to the airport is more impressive, and we enjoyed an early sunrise.
We're staying at the Mardi Plaza Hotel which I found online and specifically chose because it is inexpensive and relatively close to the ferry terminal. The place is a bit confusing because the hotel is in a shopping mall called the Batumi Plaza.... and the hotel is also called the Plaza Hotel. ?? This caused a problem later the following day when we wanted to get back to the hotel after our day long walk down the waterfront. We - against all the advice we have ever given to travelers - left the hotel without the name and the address written down on a piece of paper. We found a taxi and said "Mardi Plaza Hotel" which only elicited an incredulous look from the driver. "Ummmmm, no we don't have the address....yes it is Mardi Plaza...........but we know where it is and can give directions" (I do directions in Russian perfectly well). And off we went! When we got to the hotel's location which is inside the Batumi Plaza, the driver said, "Ahhh, ...Batumi Plaza!"
The Batumi Plaza is an interesting place. The hotel is on the fourth and fifth floors, a municipal swimming pool is on the sixth floor, and the lower floors are shops - many are jewelry shops dealing mostly with gold. I think this is the place to buy and sell gold.
Our room is simple
and the view from the window shows a business / residential area which is far away from the touristy areas which attract Russian visitors who are weary of cold and dark winters.
And here is the hotel from afar.. from a gondola ride. Our room is right smack in the middle of the photo.
Our first outing was to find the ferry office where we have to show up on Monday, late afternoon, to show documents, etc. We knew the address and had located it on Google Earth and also printed out maps from Google maps. We were so frustrated because we went to the area where we knew the building must be, but we could see no number "74" anywhere so we asked a guy where it was. Well, that was a mistake because he pointed us in the wrong direction - he said to go that-a-way. We figured since he was a Batumian, he probably knew something we didn't. So we wandered south for quite a while asking as we went. One guy pointed back the way we'd come, so we turned around. and retraced our steps, By this time Dad had figured out how to make the map-function on his phone work even though he didn't have a sim card. And then, we found the building,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, right across the street from the place where the man had told us to go "south"! Now the challenge was to find the office, but we are seasoned office finders in the republics of the former Soviet Union. The address for the office said 74B; we started to walk around the building; on the third side we found an entrance with a roman numeral II over it; we entered the dark corridor and went up one flight of stairs; there it was!!! The ferry office! It was closed! But at least we now knew where it is, and come Monday, maneuvering our two big suitcase on the crowded sidewalks would be a piece of pie.
Dinner was next. We went to a restaurant we'd passed while looking for the ferry office.
These are called manti in Kaz; very similar in form but with different spices. We like these better.
My fish. Dad got a pork kebab thing. All was tasty, but we're waiting for the delicious Georgian food people prepped us for.
SATURDAY - time to explore the city.
But breakfast first.. We fantasied about what would be served-----Dad (the realist) suggested cold cuts, cheese, bread and jam, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes and cucumbers. I proposed Georgian style omelettes, grilled veggies Georgian style, fresh orange juice, Georgian fresh pastries with currants and chocolate.
But the napkins were amazing - really! In Kazakhstan we always got ones which had been ripped in half...to save on resources.
I had to touch the water of the Black Sea first, and this was the first 'touchable' water we came upon. There we lot of people fishing--and catching
The cable car ride was great;this is the street terminal.
Up we go.
The brown building in the center is where the ferry office is located.
A cemetery directly under the cable car
The obligatory panorama of the city
The small enclosed Batumi Bay with our white ferry waiting for us - - or a similar white ferry
At the top there was a small church which we think may have been partially demolished in order to build the upper part of the cable car terminal.
This one room was all that was in the church.
Now to begin our waterfront walk with the final destination being the location of a geocache.
These giant metallic figures are Ali and Nino -the Georgian equivalent of Romeo and Juliet - in love but destined to always be apart. By day they are just stand on their pillar but at night they start moving slowly towards each other. The sculpture is designed so that each person is made up of sheets of metal which pass through each other as they never touch showing the story of Ali and Nino never being quite ale to be together. Romance and tragedy!
Big beautiful buildings - probably most are hotels
This building is abandoned. It was originally build as the Technological University, but it had technical difficulties and now is empty. There is a golden ferris wheel built in to the corner of the building.
The tower on the right with the ball on top is the Alphabetic Tower. It is meant to look like a helix of DNA. Wrapped around the building is the entire Georgian alphabet which to a non-Georgian looks like some artistic squiggly code. The building is lit up at night and there is a revolving restaurant on the top.
I guess Batumi is the city of love because there are these statues located throughout the city. Most have a big red heart.
Broad walkways impeccably clean and manicured....for the tourists' pleasure
A public drinking fountain - the first one we've seen since we left the US. Dad gave it a try and said it tasted like beach water........oh, and, we are drinking tap water....no problems yet.
Sheraton Hotel
A Marriott being built
A Marriott Courtyard - very fancy indeed
The beach is made of rocks! Only rocks and no sand. So much for wiggling on your beach towel to make a comfortable cradle for you body, and you won't be burying your three year old in the the rocks.
Beach volleyball courts - I've never seen these before. Nobody was playing - but it isn't summer, either.
There were also lots of carnival rides which were 'still' for the summer.
We were hungry and saw this food cart which had chicken in various forms. I think it is one that frequents the Provo or Orem food cart events. See, it says, Orem, Ipsum Dolor Ipsum must be a recent refugee who is now doing chicken.
This is basically a chicken doner; it was really good!
The cache is in this tower which is part of a restaurant. In this area there are structures that resemble the actual historical buildings = like the Roman Colosseum, the White House, and this Venetian tower - it is not leaning, my hand was
In and up the stairs - great views
the shabby walls didn't worry us a bit...
The Colosseum is in the center
and the cache is at the base of this ventilation apparatus right by the yellow tape.We have a great time finding geocaches!
And back down the stairs
Adjacent to the Venetian Tower there was a display of historic buildings in plastic cases. This was the biggest house.
We actually walked down to the water's edge. In this area the rocks were mixed with sand
I got one foot slightly wet
We headed back to the hotel on the memorable taxi ride and explored the streets and sidewalks around our hotel. Honestly, I feel sorry for those staying at the Marriott who are enjoying luxury but missing Georgian street life.
need a stove?
local garden centers and floral shops
All manner of Mickey and Minnie paraphernalia.
clothing - mostly children's school uniforms, under a blue tarp on the sidewalk. It was so crowded, I couldn't proceed...and I won't push.
Bulk tobacco - we've never seen this before. There were five vendors side-by-side.
and finally, a liquor store/grocery market/etc where we got a 3- day supply of Coke Zero
SUNDAY - Our adventure for the day was a trip to the Batumi Botanical Garden. Tourists can go on a "tour" that takes you to the botanical garden, but since we are 'nearly native,' we decided to take a bus. There are many minivans in Batumi which function as small buses, and they have a route number which is posted on the inside of the front window, but no specific timetable. In Russian, these are маршрутки or marshrutkas. If you want to ride one of these, you stand alongside the road, and when you see the minibus coming, you flag it down. If the bus is full, the driver "waves you off" and you then wait for the next one. And you can get off where ever you want just by telling the driver. An internet search said that minibus #31 goes right by our hotel and then to the botanical garden.
The mini bus system worked perfectly! We watched what others did and copied them. We got to the ticket gate of the botanical garden, and the driver stopped and excitedly grabbed a map and started wildly gesticulating and telling everyone about ...well, I'm not sure. But, we gathered that if we went to the next stop then we could walk downhill back to this very spot and catch a mini buss back to Batumi. That sounded good to us and the rest of the Russian passengers in the bus.
Our bus
The "upper gate" of the botanical garden
The garden has been in existence since about 1892 when a rich person bought this hillside piece of property and began to collect and plant is floral treasures. It is a beautiful place on a rather steep hillside with views of the Black Sea. The climate here is subtropical, so we saw banana trees, palms, magnolias... well - lots and lots - but the best plant was the Sequoia sempervirens, collected from the California redwoods. We enjoyed walking leisurely down the road - took us about 2 and a half hours. Dad kept going off and looking at flowers and leaves - he was in in his 'happy place'.
These photos are good examples of what we saw.
And, by golly, there was a marshrutka #31 available for taking a load of weary hikers back into the city.
Getting off the bus we realized that we were hungry. A short walk along a side street led us to this little restaurant where we couldn't read anything except cafe - this has to be genuine Georgian!
It was a tiny restaurant but busy. I watched the two proprietors and I'm sure they didn't smile or look happy even once.
We ordered by picture and got the top two items.
mine was really tasty; peppers weren't hot; maybe potatoes were a bit too oily
Dad's was like a cheesy bread boat and was really good, but
for my taste, the cheese was too strong.
no Coke Zero
We found a bakery and bought a pie-like thing. It was good with a pink sweet filling but was a crumbly choice to try to eat in a hotel room.
We ended our day speculating about the ferry trip across the Black Sea. What will our cabin be like...the bathrooms? We get three meals a day; what will they be like? Will we be cold? What does "arrival time, noon on Thursday weather permitting" mean? So exciting to speculate about the unknown.
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